The Chenglong Wetlands International Environmental Art Project (成龍溼地國際環境藝術計畫) is back for the sixth year in a row with five artists from around the world using eco-friendly, biodegradable materials to create art installations — all in the name of raising awareness of environmental issues. This year’s exhibition, entitled Fragile — Handle with Care (易碎品，小心守護), is meant to highlight the fragility of the surrounding environment. The tiny village of Chenglong in Yunlin County has long suffered from land subsidence and rising waters caused by human errors, natural disasters and global warming. The goal is that by working with students at Chenglong Elementary School, the project will help to cultivate an environmental consciousness within the youngest members of the community. Not only children, but residents of all ages are also invited to participate in the project by helping the artists construct their installations. This year’s participants include Australian-born, Canadian-based artist Christopher Varady-Szabo, Marisa Merlin from Italy, Tsuneo Sekiguchi from Japan, Roger Rigorth, a Swiss artist based in Germany, and Lee Chao-chang (李朝倉), who is originally from Yunlin County.
■ Chenglong Wetlands (成龍溼地), Chenglong Village, Kouhu Township, Yunlin County (雲林縣口湖鄉成龍村), tel: (05) 797-0856. Getting there: buses run to Chenglong Village from Chiayi HSR, but taxis are the most convenient way to arrive at Chenglong Wetlands and the fare is approximately NT$600
■ Until May 4
W(h)o is Wu? (無先生在哪？) is a joint exhibition at Waley Art in Taipei comprising of local and Austrian artists which explores the concepts of identity, language and cultural misunderstanding through photography and other mediums. Curated by Austrian sinologist Mosleh Fariba, the idea behind the exhibition is to enable artists from different cultural backgrounds to work together and learn from each other’s artistic styles. The exhibition will be highly interactive and dialectical, with the artists creating works on site, in front of live audiences. Austrian artist Florian Nitsch will be participating, as well as Taiwanese artists Chang Chih-chung (張致中) and Chou Ming-yi (周明誼), among others. The completed works will be showcased in Vienna this coming fall.
■ Waley Art (水谷藝術), 6, Ln 322, Wanda Rd, Taipei City (萬大路322巷6號), tel: (02) 2301-1821. Open daily from 10am to 8pm
■ Opens tomorrow. Until May 10
In order to demonstrate the monotony in people’s daily routines, artist Li Hao (李浩) returned to the same train station and hyper-mart every day for weeks to photograph scenes from a select few spots. The result is a series of overlapping, multi-exposure photographs, all of which consist of flurried lines, frenzied zig-zags and shadowy outlines of people trudging by. Li does this in order to show how human beings have given in to a system that emphasizes efficiency and productivity over happiness and self-fulfillment. His work is on display at Yesart Air Gallery in an exhibition entitled Le Mecanisme Repetitif/ The Repetitive Mechanism (複構即迴).
■ Yesart Air Gallery (意識畫廊), 2F, 48, Zhongshan N Rd Sec 7, Taipei City (台北市中山北路七段48號2樓), tel: (02) 2876-3858. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 2pm to 8pm
■ Until May 31
Spring is in full bloom. That means it’s time to chuck away the old and usher in the new. Change ‧ I Change (我變，我變，我變變變) is an exhibition at Taipei’s Metaphysical Art Gallery featuring artworks centered around the concept of “change.” As the gallery notes state, “‘change’ has become a necessity for creativity.” The artists hail from Taiwan, China, Japan, South Korea and the US. From Liao Yu-an’s (廖堉安) patchwork-like paintings of stuffed animals to Chiharu Nishizawa’s ceramic shards and Yee Soo-kyung’s convoluted and disproportional paintings, the exhibition resembles a comic carousel of whimsical colors and lost childhood dreams.
RSS